We lead off this week’s recommended new releases with The Specials, one of the most electrifying, influential and important bands of all time, who release Encore, their first new music for 37 years. 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the formation of The Specials and the legendary Two-Tone label in Coventry in 1979, and also…

After more than a decade in the game, Foals again embrace that love for the unconventional with the bravest and most ambitious project of their career: not one, but two astonishing new albums: Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost. A pair of releases, separate but related, they share a title, themes and artwork. Part 1…

Our six crackers for this week start with Nocturne – The Piano Album, a soothing collection of solo piano pieces by Vangelis, recorded in his inimitable style. The album features 11 new tracks as well as brand-new versions of iconic hits ‘Chariots of Fire’ and the ‘Love Theme’ from Blade Runner. Nocturne is Vangelis’s first…

We last heard from Lucy Rose with the release of 2017’s Something’s Changing, a record that heralded a new outlook for a musician re-evaluating what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it. If Something’s Changing was an artist rediscovering their voice, No Words Left is Lucy using that voice to devastating…

We have six stormers to start the year off, all released on 18th January. First, Steve Mason’s latest, About The Light, follows up 2016’s Meet The Humans. Having written most of his previous albums alone, About The Light marks a change in approach for Steve. “I decided with this album that I wanted to get…

In 1974, the nineteen-year-old Steve Earle had just hitch-hiked from San Antonio to Nashville. Steve started playing bass guitar in Guy Clark’s band and was soon flying high on what would become an indelible friendship of like-minded musicians who bonded in a kinship of stories told through song. Flash forward more than forty years to…